Star Wars: The Last Jedi has narrowly missed out on ending 2017 as the year’s biggest film at the UK box office.

Episode VIII of the long-running sci-fi franchise had taken £68.3 million in UK cinemas by the end of December 31, just £4.1m short of the amount taken by Beauty And The Beast.

But given The Last Jedi is still showing in hundreds of cinemas across the country, it is likely to overtake its rival within a week or so – allowing it to claim the separate title of the biggest-grossing film released in the UK in 2017.

The Last Jedi has also moved further up the rankings of how every Star Wars film has performed at the UK box office.

Star Wars at the UK box office. (PA Graphics)

It has now passed 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (£65.9 million) to sit in fourth place, behind the original 1977 Star Wars (£74.5 million), 1999’s The Phantom Menace (£78.5 million) and 2015’s The Force Awakens (£125.4 million).

All figures have been adjusted for inflation.

The Last Jedi took £8.0 million in cinemas during its third weekend on release in the UK, down almost a quarter (22%) on the previous weekend.

But it was still comfortably ahead of other films Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, which took £5.2 million, and The Greatest Showman, which took £4.8 million.

The new Jumanji film has been fighting back at the United States box office, where on January 1 it managed to beat The Last Jedi for the first time – something its star The Rock described as “phenomenal”.